Hyundai pick-up truck postponed until 2020 earliest

It has been over a year since the Hyundai Santa Cruz unibody pickup truck was first unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show. Then, it was said to be past the approval stage. Now, a new report says that the pick-up truck project has been postponed.

“It’s been advanced, as we understand it. It won’t be anything this side of 2020. We’ve got a planning horizon in place where they’re looking at the vehicle quite seriously, but there is yet to be a commitment to produce. I can’t confirm what or when, but it’s a slightly different message. Not any time soon, but it’s starting to feel like there’s some movement,” Hyundai Australia’s COO Scott Grant told Car Advice.

The Santa Cruz is what’s billed as a ‘crossover truck’, a unibody pick-up that shares more in common with an SUV like the Tucson rather than a more rugged, body-on-frame truck based one. It follows a formula used by the Honda Ridgeline, also a pick-up truck based on a passenger car platform, specifically that of the US-market Pilot crossover.

In concept form, the Santa Cruz featured a 190 hp/406 Nm 2.0 litre four-pot turbodiesel, claimed to be able to achieve a fuel consumption figure of 12.8 km per litre. For now though, it appears that a Korean entry in the pick-up truck segment will have to wait, as the rather more ubiquitous ladder-frame trucks such as the Ford Ranger continue to make up the bulk of pick-up trucks in our market.

Open roads and closed circuits hold great allure for Mick Chan. Driving heaven to him is exercising a playful chassis on twisty paths; prizes ergonomics and involvement over gadgetry. Spent three years at a motoring newspaper and short stint with a magazine prior to joining this website.

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